Archive for the ‘DTH’ Category

Monday, March 19 2007: India’s national broadcaster, Doordarshan, is to launch two news channels on the Sky satellite platform next month.

Doordarshan-India will be an entertainment channel, showcasing dramas, game shows, Bollywood movies, chat shows, sport and health programming. Doordarshan-News will broadcast 24-hour live news with an Indian and Asian focus.

19 March 2007: NEW DELHI: In a significant pronouncement, the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal today passed an interim order directing Sun TV to stream its signals on an a la carte basis to TataSky, at 50 per cent of the cable charges.

This means that Sun would have to give TataSky the channels that the DTH operator wants, and the price Sun would get is at 50 per cent of the price for the same channels that it receives from the MSOs in the cable TV field.

NEW DELHI, JAN 29: The DTH war in the country, which ranks as the world’s third largest television market, is heading for the stars. India’s new DTH ventures are scrambling for precious transponder space as satellite scarcity looms large.

Reliance’s Blue Magic, Bharti, Doordarshan’s DD Direct and Sun TV’s Sun Direct are in the race to acquire as many as possible of the 24 Ku-band transponders on Insat 4B and Insat 4CR, to be launched in March-April, 2007 and July-Aug, 2007, respectively.

Considering that each one is expected to offer around 120 channels, they need at least 7-10 transponders each. There aren’t that many available till the end of 2007, at least.

Each transponder is capable of providing between 15 and 30 channels depending on its frequency capacity.

Currently, there are only two satellites with a pan-India footprint capable of providing the Ku band required for DTH services—Insat 4A and the Netherlands-based SES Global-owned NSS6. Both booked between TataSky (all 12 on 4A) and DD Direct (5 on NSS6) and Dish TV (7 on NSS6). NSS6 is an international satellite with a pan-Asia presence and consists of 50 Ku band transponders.

Sources within Dish TV said, each transponder is capable of providing around 25 channels and the cost of renting a transponder is around a million dollars a year.

Due to the exorbitant international satellite transponders cost and few Indian satellites with Ku band capability there is a severe scramble for satellite transponders over Indian skies.

ISRO sources said, Insat 4B is identical to the 2005-launched Insat 4A and will be followed by the launch of Insat 4CR in August. Insat 4CR is a downgraded version Insat 4C which failed on launch in June 10, 2006. It has lesser number of transponders than Insat 4A.

With new players like Reliance with its blue magic brand of DTH services and Bharti gearing up to enter the DTH arena and the limited number of transponders available at present, one can only wait to see what happens next.

New Delhi January 29, 2007: A digital set-top box can be yours at one-third the price you pay now. Indian manufacturers like Bharat Electronics, and TVS are likely to manufacture set-top boxes for less than Rs 1,000.

A digital set-top box is a technology interface required for encrypted television signals for conditional access system (CAS) and direct-to-home (DTH) services.

Currently, the bulk of set-top boxes being supplied in India for CAS or DTH services are being imported and cost Rs 2,800-3,300. However, the government is planning various incentives to encourage Indian companies to manufacture them.

The government is expected to re-impose Customs duty on imported set-top boxes and slash the 13 per cent countervailing duty currently being charged on all components required in a set-top box could be slashed by less than half.

Thursday, December 21, 2006: Just days short of the mandatory implementation of the conditional access system (CAS) in the four metros on January 1, 2007, the Subhash Chandra-floated direct-to-home (DTH) service provider, Dish TV, plans to slash prices 49%, from Rs 2,950 to Rs 1,500 (including Rs 200 installation charge). The announcement will be made shortly.

India’s only other nationwide DTH player Tata Sky—the 74:26 JV between the Tatas and the Star group—may be forced to follow suit since it sells a DTH connection at Rs 3,999. Doordarshan’s DD Direct airs free-to-air channels at Rs 77-plus taxes a month

Mumbai, Dec 8: After launching an alliance with Kingfisher Airlines for making available a bouquet of news and entertainment channels through dish tv for the Airlines passangers, Zee Group Chairman Subhash Chandra today announced that satellite channel services will also be made available on cellular telephones and cars from February 2007.